Swiss Melt with Bacon and Artichoke Hearts

As always, apologies for the lack of posts due to a busy travel schedule!  But I'm back with a sandwich that we actually made a few weeks ago and that I've just been too lazy to write about.  This one comes to us from Great Grilled Cheese. 

Has anyone heard that there's an impending bacon shortage coming to us in about a year?  Well, bearing that in mind it seems wise to go ahead with cooking the bacon-filled sandwiches sooner rather than later.  So let's get right down to the Swiss Melt with Bacon and Artichoke Hearts.

We started out with the following ingredients:

* 6-8 ounces Swiss cheese (Gruyere in this case)
* 4 slices of bacon
* 2 teaspoons prepared horseradish
* 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
* 1 jar (6.5 oz) marinated artichoke hearts
* 1 small onion (thinly sliced)
* Pepperidge Farm Sourdough
* Olive oil

First up we mixed together the horseradish and mustard.

And then started cooking the bacon until it was nice and crispy!

Once that was done I removed the bacon to let it drain on a plate with a paper towel and started cooking the sliced onion in the pan with the bacon grease until they were limp and starting to brown.

Once the onions were done the bacon had cooled enough for us to break it into chunks.

We also cut the artichoke hearts into quarters.

And with that all of the ingredients were ready!  To assemble the sandwiches we started by spreading the horseradish/mustard on four slices of bread:

Followed by the artichokes:

And the bacon:

And the onions:

And finally the cheese:



 

After completing the sandwich and brushing the exterior with olive oil they were ready to be grilled and soon were finished!

Taste Review:

Looking over the sandwich we first made note of the unique colors.  We haven't used artichoke hearts before, so their shade of green gives a new tint to the sandwich filling.  The bacon is a nice dark color to contrast the light onions, artichokes, and cheese.  In addition to providing some nice color contrast, the bacon also gives the sandwich a good crunch, which blends well with the creaminess of the cheese.

The onions are nice and sweet-- I never tire of using sauteed onions on a sandwich!  As for overall taste, I taste mostly artichokes while Colin tastes mostly bacon (although we did put more bacon on his sandwiches than on mine since he likes it more than I do).  For me the artichokes make it very savory even though the bacon and onions are both sweet.

I was a little nervous about using horseradish, but the horseradish/dijon wasn't strong at all.  I thought the spice would overpower all of the other ingredients, but it was actually just a nice enhancement to the other flavors.  On the whole this sandwich was reminiscent of the Italian Ham and Cheese.

FINAL RESULTS:

Sandwich:	Swiss Melt with Bacon and Artichoke Hearts
Gooey-ness:	3.5
Aroma:	2
Appearance:	Colorful with a unique color in particular from the artichokes.
Taste:	A-

Gooey Scale	Aroma Scale
1 = still cold/hard	1 = can’t smell a thing
2 = slightly melted but still firm	2 = tender waft
3 = melted evenly	3 = makes your stomach growl
4 = melted and slightly runny (starting to get those cheese strings between your sandwich and your mouth when you take a bite)	4 = strong scent
5 = runny	5 = overpoweringly pungent
6 = sloppy mess!

Chicago Field Reports: The Scout and Cheesie's Pub and Grub 2

Some of you may have noticed that I didn't post last week (or maybe you didn't, I don't judge).  This was due to my taking a work trip to Chicago.  Fortunately, we all know what a work trip means: field report!  This time I was lucky enough to squeeze in two.

The view of downtown from the McCormick Convention Center-- my home for the week.

First up was The Scout, a sports bar that my friends, Caroline and Coury, found during an impromptu Google search for good grilled cheeses in Chicago.  Since I had been remiss in planning my grilled cheese consumption prior to arrival, we opted to give this spot a try.  After a quick trip on the El, we arrived at the restaurant.  They only offered three grilled cheeses, but seeing as how each was a FOOT LONG I knew we were on to something.

We decided we'd split one since a foot long sandwich would be a lot for anyone to handle solo.  We chose the grown up grilled cheese since that seemed to have the greatest diversity in terms of variety of ingredients.  While we waited for our entree we ordered the pulled chicken nachos appetizer and oh man...

If this was any indicator of how the grilled cheese would be I was excited already.  These nachos were insanely delicious.  But my blog isn't about nachos, so on we go to the main event:

I wasn't sure how I felt about the presentation-- why cover the star of the show with a big dish of tomato sauce?  Oh well, I got over it.  Now, just to give you a feel for how large this sandwich really is, I had my friend Coury put her hand in the photo to provide a size reference point.

So yes, this is pretty massive.  After ensuring adequate photo documentation, we split it into three normal sized sandwiches and dove right in.

In case you can't quite read the menu in the photo, the sandwich includes: red onion jam, brie, Swiss, fresh mozzarella and bacon on brioche bread with tomato basil dipping sauce.  The first thing we all agreed upon was that the brie was too strong and that, when paired with the brioche bread, it was too sweet.  Add to that the sweet red onion jam and this is starting to slide dangerously close to the dessert grilled cheese category.  The fresh mozzarella is so neutral you don't really know it's there-- in fact, I'm not sure why they even opted to add it.  It was hard to get a bite that included all of the flavors of the sandwich because the ingredients weren't necessarily distributed evenly throughout the sandwich, but even if I had been able to I don't think it would've helped matters. 

Coury and Caroline felt the tomato sauce wasn't necessary thanks to the jam, but by the end of my piece I found myself using the dip more and more to try and mute some of the other flavors (namely the jam and brie).  The sandwich was just too sweet between the brioche, brie and jam to the point that it was almost too much.  I finished my slice, but was glad that I was sharing it with two other people because I wouldn't have wanted to polish off more by myself.  And despite what the beautifully charred color above might indicate, the bread was actually kind of floppy and left your hands feeling pretty greasy (two minus points in my book).  I was hoping for something a little more savory with a good crunch, so I was kind of disappointed.  Luckily, the remaining nachos were there to console me ;-)

Fortunately, a week long trip meant multiple chances to enjoy some grilled cheese deliciousness!  For my second outing I opted to re-visit a tried and true spot: Cheesie's Pub and Grub.  You may recall that when I visited Cheesie's last year around this time they had just opened.  Over the course of the last year I've been following them on Facebook and have noted their steady gain in popularity and ultimate expansion of the restaurant.  As such, I was excited to check back in and see for myself the progress that they've made (and to take my friend Caroline, a Chicago newbie, to a Chicago hot spot-- or rather, the only place in Chicago I know).

First up, and excuse the poor quality photo, was the newly expanded facade.  Hooray!  A bright orange beacon to cheese lovers everywhere.

Inside was exciting as well, with a square bar situated in the center of the restaurant with a counter on the left (not pictured) where you can place your order.  They've also expanded to serve pizza as well, which means they now serve my two favorite foods.  Additional bonus: all drinks are $4.  As if your hours at Cheesie's could get any happier :-)

The menu remains pretty straightforward with about a dozen sandwiches (including a new sandwich of the month each month).  I already knew I loved The Mac (mac and cheese on the sandwich), but wanted to make sure I tried something new.  I had seen their monthly sandwich listed online and it sounded DE-lish.  )  It was "The Edgar": Slow cooked BBQ pulled pork, covered in melted mozzarella and Swiss cheese, topped with onion straws and coleslaw on perfectly grilled Texas toast.  Sign me up!  Both Caroline and I ordered The Edgar and opted to share a side of sweet potato fries.  It was a nice night out so we decided to sit by a large open window for some pseudo-al fresco dining.

In a matter of minutes our sandwiches arrived.

Mmm, looks perfect from the outside, but let's take a peek at the good stuff:

Delightful.  In terms of taste, the pork was definitely the star of the show, but Caroline pointed out that everything has its own voice-- most notably the crunchy onions and the creamy slaw.  I agree, it was a nice variety of textures. 

The cheese takes a bit more of a back seat and tends to act as a binding agent for the other ingredients, which is useful because this sandwich has a lot of potential to be pretty sloppy.  Once again, I wasn't sure why mozzarella was a cheese of choice, but maybe its cohesive properties had something to do with that decision.  I do think with something a little sharper (maybe cheddar?) the cheese would've had its own legs next to the sweet pork (instead of just acting as a filler).  That's not to say this was a bad combination by any means-- it was delicious!  I just always want the cheese to be the featured player and am not sure that was the case here. 

The bread was a major highlight-- it was thick, but didn't feel too overwhelming and bready (sometimes with thick bread I end up pulling some of the crust off so the bread doesn't completely overtake the filling).  All in all we were both quite pleased.  To quote Caroline, "I anticipated being overwhelmed, but I find the sandwich very accessible."

And with that I conclude another successful trip to Chicago!  Cheesie's continues to reign supreme where Chicago grilled cheeses are concerned, and in general I find them a model for everything a good grilled cheese restaurant should be-- a place that doesn't take itself too seriously and offers a good variety of grilled cheeses with fun ingredients.  I love the laid back atmosphere and fact that you can get a delicious meal and cheap drink at virtually any hour of the day.  I had wanted to try Grahamwhich, the sandwich restaurant of famed chef Graham Elliot, but it's only open during business hours-- a mistake that I'm not a fan of.  The American Grilled Cheese Kitchen is the best restaurant I've been to so far and it falls victim to this same trap.  I know that, depending on the location, having evening hours can be a costly venture that doesn't see adequate returns, but I think it's still an option worth exploring.  Cheesie's embraces the fact that when people go out they want cheap drinks and good solid food and so far that's seemed to be a recipe for success.

Thanks again to my Chicago co-diners:

Coury, Caroline...

and Caroline!

Brunch Grilled Cheese

Before I dive in I'd just like to say that this is, without question, the craziest grilled cheese I've made to date.  Reading the recipe I could hardly believe my eyes, which meant I definitely needed to try it!  Once again it comes to us from the Wisconsin Grilled Cheese Academy who you may remember from a certain superstar sandwich known as The Pilgrim.  That sandwich was so good that I had nothing but faith that this one would also prove to be a winner.

Let's start with the ingredients:

Milk, 2 large russet potatoes, white bread, 8 ounces brie, 8 slices of bacon, 6 eggs, vanilla extract, nutmeg, cinnamon, canola oil, butter, salt and pepper and optional maple syrup.  Already these sound like all the necessary ingredients for a tasty breakfast, but the thought that somehow they would all end up on the same sandwich blew my mind!

First came the most labor intensive part of the whole process-- making my own hash browns.  I peeled both potatoes, put them in a pot of cold water and brought that pot to a boil.

Once the water was boiling I reduced the heat and let the potatoes simmer for 5 minutes before turning off the heat and letting them sit undisturbed for 15-20 minutes.

While this was going on I whipped up (literally) a dipping mixture that was clearly intended for making French toast.  The recipe called for 1 cup of milk, 2 eggs, 1 tsp. vanilla extract and a pinch of cinnamon and nutmeg.  I had some heavy cream that I've been meaning to use, so I went with that instead of milk.  Also, my "pinch" of cinnamon got a little out of control, but I wasn't worried as cinnamon french toast is tasty!

Once this was mixed I put it in the fridge to hang out until I was ready for it (I also used this down time to remove the rind from the brie and cut it into slices).  Then it was back to making hash browns.  Once the potatoes had finished sitting in the water I rinsed them with cold water and was supposed to wait for them to fully cool, but I'm not the most patient person in the world, so after a cursory rinse with cold water I barrelled on to the next step-- grating the potatoes with the large side of my box grater.

Not letting the potatoes cool fully came back to haunt me here as I grated towards the center of the potatoes and found them to be increasingly hot.  No problem, I would just re-rinse with cold water when it got too hot to handle (I'll leave out any cheesy reference to playing hot potato).

I didn't end up using all of both potatoes because I deemed my pile of potato shavings to be pretty massive well before I had finished grating both potatoes (after all, there are only two of us).  So when I felt like I had a good amount I put an even layer in the bottom of my skillet (where I had been heating 4 Tbsp of oil-- I was using vegetable instead of canola).

I was instructed to let this cook for 5 minutes on one side (or until browned) and then flip the whole thing with a wide spatula.  Well, that didn't happen.  Despite explicit instructions to not disturb the potatoes while cooking I made quite a mess of flipping the potatoes and ended up with several different clumps of potatoes rather than one big potato pancake.  Oh well, as long as all the clumps were browned on both sides I felt OK.

Next came cooking the bacon.  Nothing special to note here, just fry it up and drain it on a paper towel.

This was followed by frying 4 eggs.  I opted to drain the pan of the bacon grease prior to cooking the eggs and to use a spritz of cooking spray to make sure the eggs didn't stick to the pan.  At this point I had concluded that making 2 sandwiches for each of us would be WAY too much food, so I decided to cut back to three, meaning I fried 3 eggs instead of 4.

Next up I retrieved the dipping mixture from the fridge and re-whisked it to make sure the cinnamon and nutmeg were evenly distributed.  I think we can all see where this is headed.  I dipped one slice of bread at a time in the dipping mixture and fried it up in the frying pan (that had been primed with butter prior to).  Once both sides were nicely browned I would remove the bread and move on to the next piece until I had 6 slices of fully executed French toast.

Now it was time to build the sandwiches! 

First came three slices of french toast with 1 ounce of brie spread evenly on each slice (although I think this layer really equated to more than an ounce each).

This was followed by the hash browns...

... the eggs...

... the bacon...

... the rest of the brie...

and the remaining French toast slices!  Eek!  So much food!  Into the pan each sandwich went for one more quick fry to help melt the brie (but not so long as to burn the French toast).  And so, one and a half hours of labor intensive cooking later, the sandwiches were ready for consumption!

Taste Review:

Perhaps one of my favorite kitchen aromas is that of cooking cinnamon, which is exactly the aroma given off by this sandwich.  Yum!  Biting into the sandwich the first thing I really tasted was the bacon, mostly because it's so salty, but the more I chewed the more the other flavors started to make their presence known.  I guess the best way to describe this is telling you to think of what it would taste like if you took a bite of all of your breakfast at once and added a slice of brie cheese.

I was worried that using French toast as the bread would mean that the sandwich didn't have a crunch to it at all, but the fried potatoes and, more notably, the bacon both provided a crunchy element to contrast the soft eggs, cheese and bread (if the potatoes had been even crunchier that would've been great).  I also worried about the French toast being the lone sweet element to the sandwich-- would the sandwich taste too sweet despite the savory ingredients?  No.  The savory ingredients are actually really salty, so the French toast was noticeable, but was just the right level of sweet (and the hint of vanilla was just perfect).  The recipe suggests optional maple syrup on the side and I tried it on one bite, but that did make things too sweet.  Colin opted for some ketchup and was pleased with that decision.

I also wasn't sure about the decision to use a milder cheese for this sandwich.  With the number of different flavors going on I was wondering if something like Gruyere might have been more appropriate.  But really, the level of sharpness provided via the salty ingredients would've been too intense with a sharp cheese.  The brie was a good choice because it was just strong enough-- something like mozzarella would've been too weak and Gruyere would've been too strong.  The only change I might've made would've been to get a creamier brie instead of the buttery brie (but alas that was $4 more per pound and I'm cheap) because after eating the sandwich for awhile you do start to get a little overwhelmed by the brie (that could've been because I opted to take the bacon off of my sandwiches and that had been part of what balanced the brie out).

This really is everything you could want in a brunch distilled into one sandwich.  If you don't drop dead from a heart attack immediately after eating one then you'll be one happy camper!

FINAL RESULTS:

Sandwich:	Brunch Grilled Cheese
Gooey-ness:	2.5
Aroma:	4
Appearance:	Over stuffed, but ultimately has very bland colors.
Taste:	A-

This would've been an A, but I took some points off for how labor intensive it was.  A good way to avoid that in the future would be to not make your own hash browns.  I could've saved some time by just using frozen.

Italian Ham and Cheese

Without giving too much away up front, let me just say that this week we were solidly back on track after the grilled portobello and provolone incident.  This week's sandwich is the Italian Ham and Cheese.  The French Style Grilled Ham and Cheese from back in April was successful enough, so I was hoping to be met with similar luck courtesy of France's southeastern neighbor.

As always, gathering the ingredients was step one.  This week we needed a loaf of sourdough, 6 ounces Fontina (they recommend Italian Fontina, but this is harder to find than its Danish counterpart, so I took what I could get), 1/4 pound pancetta, olive oil, butter and one large leek.  I had never tried leek before, but in my head I was equating the taste with fennel-- which I hate.  I'm not actually sure where I got that idea because it is absolutely not the case.  A leek is basically a big scallion and I loves me some onion, so once I realized this was the case I was fully on board for the sandwich.

Step one: cut the white and green parts of the leek into thin strips until you have about 6 ounces.  Having never cut up a leek before I had to sort of improvise.  I decided the best approach would be to cut it much like I would a scallion.

This worked well enough, but left me wondering why I needed a "large leek."  I only cut up part of it and still had more than enough to fill my measuring cup (1 cup = 8 ounces so that was already 2 more ounces than the recipe called for).  But it's alright!  I like onions!

I tossed the sliced leeks into my frying pan along with ~2 tsp. of olive oil and let them cook "until they were limp but not brown."

I know they don't look much different, but I promise they had a more limp texture at this point in the game.

Next it was time to cook the pancetta, so I set the leeks aside and distributed the pancetta slices around my frying pan.

I always get nervous when I cook bacon-like foods in my frying pan because I'm not entirely confident that the grease from the bacon aids in keeping the bacon from sticking to the pan.  I know the non-stick capabilities of the pan are supposed to prove useful here, but I always end up with some crusty bacon bits left behind when I cook.  Oh well!  If it's for the good of the sandwich then I'm willing to sacrifice my time and clean an extra dirty pan later.

I think this may have been the first time that I successfully cooked bacon without burning it!  I was very cautious to remove the pancetta as soon as it had turned a "deep golden brown" and not once it had turned into "a dark brown charred mess."  While the bacon cooled off a bit on a plate I took the liberty of wiping out (but not washing) the frying pan.  I'm always skeptical of this step (again, because it leaves a crusty film on the bottom of the pan that somewhat detracts from the non-stick properties), but I suppose it's important to maintain that residual bacon flavor.

Once the pancetta had cooled a bit I chopped it up into bacon bits (this had already started to happen in the pan, so I just needed to give a few more chops to get it to a good place).

Now it was time to make the sandwiches!  I started off with four slices of sourdough buttered on one side (buttered side down) with the 6 ounces of Fontina spread evenly between them.

Next came the leeks:

And finally, the pancetta bits:

Once those were topped they were ready for cooking!  Things went pretty smoothly during the cooking process save for the fact that having several small pieces as sandwich toppings made it tricky to flip the sandwich while keeping all the pieces inside.  Things got a little messy in the pan, but since the bacon residue was still all over the place it wasn't a big deal.  Especially because I got a finished product that looks this delicious:

Taste Review:

There wasn't a strong aroma unless you got right up in the sandwiches grill-- luckily eating a sandwich means you are doing just that, so I would say the sandwich gave off an aroma of light onions and buttered toasted bread.  The initial appearance reminded Colin of a BLT-- probably just because of the bacon bits.

Upon tasting, the first thing I noticed was how creamy the cheese is!  I actually wasn't paying attention too closely to the notes I was writing while eating and ended up saying "cheese is creamy" twice, so it must be true.  It had melted very well and had a light enough flavor that it made its presence known without slapping you in the face (unlike some other cheeses...sharp provolone, I'm looking in your direction).

The best way for me to describe this sandwich is "understated and elegant."  It had a delicate balance of flavors that worked well together to make a rich taste without making you feel like you were over-indulging.  The leek gave just the right amount of onion flavor without leaving a stinky onion taste in your mouth for hours to come.  Add to that the light salty/sweet pancetta and you've got a delightful treat.  If you wanted the flavors to be stronger you could certainly add more onion and/or pancetta, but I think this was the perfect balance to keep things light and tasty.  Colin and I both finished our sandwiches quickly and probably would have wanted more had it been available!  So by the "did we finish?" indicator, this was a winner.

One aside is that this sandwich made me realize how truly important good bread is.  I'm not sure what it is about this Pepperidge Farm sourdough, but every sandwich I've made using it has been tasty!  It toasts very evenly and has the perfect sourdough flavor without being too chewy or overly sour.

FINAL RESULTS:

Sandwich:	Italian Ham and Cheese
Gooey-ness:	3.5
Aroma:	2
Appearance:	Delicate look with little bacon bits and soft green leeks.
Taste:	A

Gooey Scale	Aroma Scale
1 = still cold/hard	1 = can’t smell a thing
2 = slightly melted but still firm	2 = tender waft
3 = melted evenly	3 = makes your stomach growl
4 = melted and slightly runny (starting to get those cheese strings between your sandwich and your mouth when you take a bite)	4 = strong scent
5 = runny	5 = overpoweringly pungent
6 = sloppy mess!

Hooray!  What a comeback from last week's near failure!  Not sure what we'll be trying next week-- we've got several recipes left that involve goat cheese, or maybe I'll find one that uses the rest of the sourdough loaf I bought, or maybe both!  Stay tuned to find out!